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The Keep - F Paul Wilson
The keep had stood empty in the Transylvanian Alps for 500 years. No one knew who built ... more
it, or why. But on the eve of World War II, German soldiers move in and awaken something - something hungry and as merciless as the SS einsatzkommandos...
A review by mikeydred on The Keep - F. Paul Wilson April 26th, 2001
Author's product rating:
Would you read it again?
Absolutely
Story
Outstanding
Characters
Outstanding
Readability
Excellent
How does it compare to other works by the same author?
Very good
Advantages:
Classic Horror Novel
Disadvantages:
Not to everyone's taste
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
The Keep was the first novel I read by the author F. Paul Wilson and is the first in a series of six novels that make up "The Adversary" series. The Adversary in the series being effectively the devil or evil personified.
The frontispiece acknowledges a debt to H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, but the novel is the product of Wilson's brilliantly inventive mind. The title is the catch tag from the cover of the book. Before I go any further, the book was used as the basis of a very second rate horror film much to the annoyance of the author, directed by none other than Michael Mann , and rated as one of the great lost movies of all time in this months (June 2001) Total Film. I would beg to differ.
The novel is set in the Second World War and starts with missive from the post of an out-of-favour commander in a keep in a remote pass in Romania, requesting relocation due to the fact that "Something" is murdering his men. An SS commander is given the job of sorting the situation out on his way to set up a "resettlement" camp in Romania.
Also drawn into the conflict are Glaeken, Rasalom's (The Adversary) ancient enemy and a Jewish professor and his daughter. The book makes great use of the potential conflicts between all the characters woven into the story. As an example the Jewish professor agrees to help Rasalom in the hope that he will help the Jews by stopping the creation of the resettlement camps, even going as far as removing Hitler.
The character of Glaeken is similar to Wilson most famous creation , Repairman Jack. The characters join forces in the final book in the series , Nightworld.
Glaeken is an ancient immortal , sworn to oppose the dark force of Rasalom, who carries a great sword that has an important bearing in the final novel in the series.
The book culminates in a final battle between Glaeken and Rasalom in which they plunge from a great height into a gorge, not unlike a certain scene in a certain book by a certain Mr Tolkein. Rasalom is apparentlly destroyed along with Glaeken's sword, the source of his virtual immortality.
This book is a classic of the horror genre although sometimes difficult to pick up. It is, I believe currently available on Amazon.
An interesting aside is the Stephen King is the president of the Repairman Jack fan club, and though not directly relevant to this book the web site has an excellent graphic representation of the relationship between Wilson's novels and the characters therein. The website address is:
Advantages: brilliant writing, addictive, genuinely creepy Disadvantages: none that spring to mind
...tell you if this was the first horror novel I read(point horror so does not count!). It was also the first book to scare me completely witless. And after a few years, I decided to go back.
The cover shown on Ciao is not the same cover on my version(it's old!) but it was the cover that initially terrified me. I then read it, and found myself even more terrified. Being a student of AS level history(don't laugh!) I found the Keep to be quite accurate ... ...bad mistakes I missed). The book is set in 1941, mainly in the Dinu Pass, Romania. And there are Nazi's in it. And a vampire, of sorts. There's also a guy, known as Glenn, who is the obvious earlier version of Wilson's Repairman Jack(he's just as cool though) and a girl, Magda, and her dad, erm...uh-oh...
Anyway, there's also an SS commander(booo! Hiss!) and just a normal German army commander who is having regrets about the way Germany is going. ...
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...completely boring, there was no depth what so ever, it took me all of an evening to read it and you cant even get a feel for the characters!
Vampire fiction can be written so much better than this, I suggest F.PaulWilson, esp the Keep, Freda Warringtons 'A Taste of Blood Red Wine' and the classic Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu. In short dont go out of your way to buy it unless you also find it for 50p in a charity shop. Failing that e-mail me your address and I'll give it to you!!
Poppy Z Brite. Lost Souls. Penguin Books 1992...
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Advantages: Another superb instalment in one of the best series ever Disadvantages: Difficult to track down
...Although I think this is the fourth in F. PaulWilson's Adversary series it is the book that follows on most directly from "The Keep", the first book in the series. The website www.repairmanjack.com explains the full relationship between the actual books.
Basically the series deals with the battle between good and evil, except "good" in this instance is just a power that opposes evil, rather than anything beneficial towards mankind. The powers of good have a figurehead in Glaeken/Veilleur and evil is personified by the entity known as Rasalom/ Molasar, supposedly destroyed at the climax of "The Keep". Rasalom "feeds" off the evil ate hate of mankind, and this is defined in an excellent soliloquy at the end of "Reprisal", the book that follows this one.
This book introduces several important character in the series, Father Bill...
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Advantages: A superb rivetting Armageddon Novel Disadvantages: Not to everyone's taste
...becoming – four hours and forty two
minutes of light on Thursday.”
CAMERON: “And on Friday?”
SAPIR : “On Friday, nothing”
CAMERON: “Nothing?”
SAPIR : “Correct. If the curve holds true, the sun will set at 3:01 PM
on Thursday and will not rise again. There will be no sunrise
on Friday……”
This novel is the culmination of F. PaulWilson’s Adversary series and is probably the easiest one along with “The Keep”, to pick up. I’ve reviewed the first two in the series, but the next three (“The Touch”, “Reprisal” and “Reborn”) are no longer in my possession and difficult to get hold of and I can’t trust my addled old memory to do them justice. You can read this...
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helpful 03.06.2001
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22.08.2001
